Expats win Halifax court case

Thousands of expats around the world will receive a settlement from Halifax Building society following the end of a 14 year fight.

A total of 12,000 expats will share around US$8.6 million, roughly $720 each, in lieu of shares that were previously denied by Halifax.

Before this settlement was reached but a handful of expats were given compensation by the UK financial Ombudsman after Halifax staff were deemed to have given them misleading information.

The main issue of the case was that Halifax had refused windfall shares to Brit expats who were judged to be living away from areas where Halifax were willing to issue shares, permitted territories.

One of the expats embroiled in the case lauded the ruling, yet stressed that there is still work to be done: “This is a first step. In all 55,000 expats were denied windfall shares and we plan to continue our campaign,” said Brit living in Brazil Brian Hazlehurst.

As Halifax was bailed out of its 2009 financial crisis by Lloyds TSB, it is Lloyds who will pay off the expats.